Biography

Dr. Odunsi is Chair of the Department of Gynecologic Oncology and Executive Director of the Center for Immunotherapy at Roswell Park Cancer Institute. One of the leading experts internationally in the fields of gynecologic oncology and cancer immunotherapy, he is also the M. Steven Piver Endowed Professor of Gynecologic Oncology and co-leader of the Tumor Immunology and Immunotherapy Program at Roswell Park. Dr. Odunsi is also a Professor of Gynecology & Obstetrics at the University at Buffalo. He joined the Roswell Park staff in 2001 as an attending surgeon. 

In addition to his clinical responsibilities as a gynecologic oncology surgeon, he maintains a strong and independent research program that is focused on understanding the interactions between the immune system and human ovarian cancer. His laboratory studies have been successfully translated to several “first in human” applications in ovarian cancer patients. These pioneering studies include the development of vaccines against ovarian cancer, as well as the development of strategies to manufacture a patient’s own immune cells in large numbers in order to combat the disease. He is the Principal Investigator of an NCI funded Specialized Program of Research Excellence, or SPORE, award in Ovarian Cancer, one of only five such programs in the country. Recently, he was appointed as co-chair of the NCI’s Ovarian Cancer Task Force, a body that plays a key role in mapping the future direction of ovarian cancer research in the United States.    

Dr. Odunsi obtained his medical degree from the University of Ife, Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in 1984, and completed postgraduate training in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom. He obtained his Ph.D. from the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine in Oxford, England. He subsequently trained in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Yale University School of Medicine, and in Gynecologic Oncology at Roswell Park. He is a Fellow of both the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists in the UK and the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in the US.